5th January: Union Glacier

Luckily all went to plan and they didn’t leave me behind. When I arrived at the airport we were taken out to an incredible aircraft called an Illyushin 76.

I walked up the steps into a huge cargoe hold with absolutely no windows. All the freight was stored behind us, including fuel and supplies for Antartica.

The flight took 4½ hours and although I could not see a thing I was able to watch the altimeter in the hold which told me when the plane was descending – I also heard the wheels go down. We landed on a 4 kilometre ice runway, 3,000 metres thick on the glacier itself. The plane took a very long to come to a halt as you cannot put the brakes on an ice runway.

Deplaned into glorious sunshine, the most incredible backdrop I have ever seen. I was absolutely speechless. Although it was very sunny and the sky was an uninterrupted blue the temperature was -10˚C.

The glacier is surrounded by mountains on three sides – awe-inspiring. We were driven to our camp – which is quite extensive – and shown around the facilities.

The plan is to spend three days here before the next leg of the journey. I have a tent of my own, which has a double-skin, hard floor, camp bed, table and a little bowl for washing in. All good so far!

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